2011 – That Was The Chart Year

No surprise at the top of the singles list of the year 2011: On The Floor recorded by JLO feat. Pitbull is the most sold single of the past twelve months. The single was five weeks at number one in April and May strongly promoted due to the fact that it was the opening song for one of the live shows of Deutschland sucht den Superstar (Germany’s Idols). After Jennifer Lopez’ performance at Wetten dass…? (Bet that…) in June the song rebounded for a single week to the top spot after a six weeks break. The song so far spent 41 weeks inside the German charts, 25 of them in the Top 10 – it sneaks at number 72 still in the last issue of the year. It is far and away JLO’s most successful song in Germany and her very first number 1 hit after an almost 12 years long chart career.

JLO is the single queen – at the albums list we do have another female star. It is of course Adele and her album 21. The most successful single taken from it was Rolling In The Deep which also was one of the most significant songs of the year listed at number 4 in the 2011 survey. The song spent 51 weeks inside the charts – that’s only one week less than the whole year – and it held two weeks the number one spot in February, dethroned by Bruno Mars and his grenade (number 3 in 2011).

We did have 15 different number 1 songs – that’s two more than the year before but the same amount as in 2009 and 2008. So we could call the year a very usual one.
The longest number 1 runner was New Age by Marlon Roudette. 8 weeks – the complete September and October – the track was the most sold one in Germany. Number 6 in the survey of the year. The artist is back at the top after a 5 years break. In 2006 he had a number 1 hit with his project Mattafix.
Three acts reached the Top for the fourth time: The Black Eyed Peas with The Time (Dirty Bit) (number 36) – and they now had number one hits over a seven years span –, Lady Gaga with Born This Way (number 17) and Rihanna with We Found Love (number 13).
The longest way to number 1 had Danza Kuduro by Lucenzo feat. Don Omar which took full two months to reach the top.

Leaving number 1 territory we truly can describe a battle between a DJ and a rapper for being the most active act of the year. Seeing Cuban-USAmerican rapper Pitbull at the top of the singles list reflects the presence of this artist in 2011. He collected 168 chart entries over the whole year making him only the second most present artist in 2011. The real king in terms of chart weeks is – you already know it – French DJ David Guetta. He appeared 216 times with 16 different tracks in the list. The most successfull week was the issue from September 9th, when he had nine different tracks in the survey. It was the week when his album Nothing But The beat was released. His most successful single hit according to sales figures was Sweat – the rework of Snoop Dogg’s recording Wet – that is listed at number 7 in the list of the year.The track occupied number 2 for four weeks in April /May and missed the top cause JLO & Pitbull sticked there. In 2011 David Guetta had 5 more tracks reaching the Top 10 – 4 of them in a row – giving him 39 Top 10 weeks, what is NOT the best result in 2011. Again Pitbull is the one beating him out with 45 weeks inside the Top 10.

Overshadowed by that battle and the two very strong ladies the most active female star of the year misses the really big headline. Rihanna had 8 hits in 2011, 5 of them top ten, she appeared full 151 weeks inside the list. In every other chart year she would be celebrated as the queen.

Another act that growed in the shadow is Flo Rida. In 2011 he launched four Top 10 hits finally reaching number 1 with Good Feeeling at the end of the year. I guess he will be one of the big names in 2012 too.

The most successful newcomer is a casted star: Pietro Lombardi had three single hits this year, his debut Call My Name shot straight to number 1 and spent four weeks there (number 5 in the year’s survey) before tumbling down to number 7. The appearance of his latest release Goin’ To L.A. gives the impression that his star is already sinking. But first the look back: Pietro Lombardi has the honour of being the best sold German act. In the survey follows Tim Bendzko with Nur noch kurz die Welt retten (number 10) and Jupiter Jones with Still (number 20).

Finally some trivias: There are two songs in 2011 that spent more than 40 weeks inside the charts in different versions. It is Waka Waka – the anthem of the 2010 world championship – which was available as a single by Shakira and in a German version by Spongebob. The song ranked still at number 33 in 2011. Probably more present was Hello by Martin Solveig and Dragonette which ranked at number 5 at the beginning of the year and had a cover version inside the charts recorded by Berlin band The Baseballs.

A chart record was set by Paul & Fritz Kalkbrenner when their Sky And Sand reached its peak at number 29 on November 11th – in its 83rd chart week. Another long time benchmark was set in the very last week of the year when Happy Xmas (War Is Over) by John Lennon & Yoko Ono with the Plastic Ono Band and the Harlem Community Choir reappeared in the list. The song was noted for the first time in February 1973 and now has an almost 39 years chart run reaching position 46 as the highest.

The act having the longest chart career of all present in 2011 is Mama Africa Miriam Makeba. She came to new chart life due to a remix of her hit Pata Pata from 1968 by Milk&Sugar. The single spent eight weeks in the list rising to number 33. Miriam Makeba now was present in the German charts for 43 and a half year. Talking ’bout come backs in 2011 I have to mention Eva Jacob who had her last chart entry in 1965 with the Andrew Sisters. 45 and a half years later she was part of the Dschungel Allstars 2011 that had a short stop alongside Zipfelbuben in February 2011. So technically she holds the record of being absent from the charts for the longest time.

Although 2011 was the least successful year for German SCOOTER the band is right now the act with the longest continuity of hits. 2011 was their18th year in a row releasing at least one chart hit. All time leader Peter Alexander still is far and away with 29 consecutive years.

Least successful acts: Peter Maffay – who really played a sad (and naive) role around the Bushido/BAMBI discussion – added this year two singles to his impressive collection of 47 chart hits, although the past 23 did not cross posiiton 25 – the last time he was seen higher was in 1983 with Nessaja.
To mention also the duo Eichensohn/Davenstedt that spent a single week at number 100 with the track FFF.